Cancel the #DetroitWater Debt and Start Afresh

Sign the petition:

We call on the City of Detroit and the newly-formed
Great Lakes Water Authority to cancel the existing debts of Detroit
Water and Sewerage customers and start afresh with simple, affordable
rates: all customer past-due balances are wiped clean.

Last
year, Detroit made international headlines when tens of thousands of
residents lost their access to water through an aggressive shut-off
program by the water department.

The city
of Detroit has endured decades of economic turmoil, drastic depopulation
and repeated mismanagement. The Detroit Water and Sewerage Department
(DWSD) is over $5 billion in debt (over $4,500 per family in the
metro Detroit area).To compensate, they have increased rates over 119%
in the last decade.¹Residents who fall behind on their bills risk water
shutoff, and in 2014 that’s exactly what happened to tens of thousands
of Detroiters.

The shutoff program didn't work,
and the DWSD collected less than 3% of the over $100 million currently
owed.² A large number of the families who entered into payment plans
last year are now defaulting on them yet again because they lack
sufficient income.

In contrast, a voluntary
bond tender offer initiated during the shutoffs allowed the city to
renegotiate high interest rates on municipal water bonds and save over
$250 million in interest fees for the city.³

The
bond markets know that Detroit's water debt is junk and the city will
unlikely ever be able to pay the current interest rates, which is why
Default Trends proclaimed Detroit Water and Sewerage Department (DWSD)
its "Biggest Default of 2014".⁴

Corruption in
the DWSD has been rampant, with former Department head Victor Mercado
currently serving an 8-month federal corruption sentence for "conspiracy
to commit extortion" by padding department contracts and rigging bids
that netted his business associates millions. Although many of those
contracts are now being scrutinized by the city's legal team, Detroiters
are still paying dearly for the fraud of past leaders.

The
overbearing Detroit water debt has a human side, too: it has pushed
Detroit into an outright humanitarian crisis. Rates of infectious
disease and sickness are up dramatically, leading the National Nurses
union recently to declare a 'Public Health Emergency' in Detroit.⁵The
water department is significantly under-staffed and water infrastructure
is crumbling, leading to leaks that cost taxpayers tens of millions
annually. The department is unable to address these time-sensitive
issues due to lack of funding, as it currently spends 46% of its
operating revenue on debt service to banks - the largest line-item by
far in its budget.

We call on the City of
Detroit and the newly-formed Great Lakes Water Authority to cancel the
Detroit Water and Sewerage Department's existing debts and start afresh
with simple, affordable rates: all customer past-due balances are wiped
clean.

Detroit's existing
water/sewerage rate structure is highly-regressive and unaffordable for
too many families. We call on the city to implement the 2005 Water
Affordability Plan to ensure that no family pays more than the
EPA-recommended threshold for water, including "lifeline rates" for
essential quantities of drinking/bathing water.⁶

The
water department acknowledges that 90% of its operating costs are
fixed⁷, meaning they don't depend upon how much water is consumed by
users. Still, they charge usage-based rates that fluctuate dramatically
with weather (up to 18% decrease in usage) and with broader demographic
shifts in the region (2/3 of Detroit's population has left the city
since 1950). Creating a progressive rate structure based at least
partially upon a family's income - as is done with many public services
like streetlights, schools, libraries, etc - would more equitably
distribute the burden of operating a system relied upon by over 4
million people for essential drinking water.

The
Detroit Water Brigade has provided emergency relief and advocacy to
hundreds of families since June of 2014, including providing immediate
financial assistance to families currently without water.⁸We've seen
first-hand the disastrous effects of these harsh, debt-driven austerity
policies.

We pledge to escalate this
campaign in the coming months until we bring relief to the tens of
thousands of metro Detroit families living without water today and the
millions living precariously with unaffordable water rates.

In
1972 a young white prison guard named Brent Miller was fatally stabbed
inside Louisiana State Penitentiary, also known as “Angola.” Although
no physical evidence tied Albert Woodfox to the crime, he was
immediately assumed to be guilty and placed in solitary confinement; 23
hours a day isolated in a small cell, four steps long, three steps
across. He was eventually convicted of the crime after trials
tainted with constitutional violations and other legal issues, and has
been held in solitary confinement, fighting to prove his innocence ever
since.

Albert believes that he and fellow prisoners, Herman Wallace and Robert
King, were placed in solitary confinement in retaliation for their
activism and outspoken critique of injustice. All three men were members
of the Black Panther Party and campaigned for better treatment, racial
solidarity, and an end to the brutal sexual slavery in prison. Woodfox,
Wallace and King came to be known as the Angola 3.

Albert Woodfox’s conviction has been overturned three times - most
recently in 2013 on the basis of racial discrimination in the selection
of a grand jury foreperson. In late 2014, an appeals court upheld the
decision in Alberts favor, and on February 6, his lawyers filed for
bail. After years of the State of Louisiana appealing decisions in
Albert’s favor, It is critical that Governor Bobby Jindal show
leadership, and ensure that Albert’s cruel and unjust isolation is not
his legacy. April 2015 will mark 43 years since Woodfox was
first placed solitary - for a crime he maintains that he didn't' commit,
a claim that much of the available evidence supports. It is time for
the State to let the wisdom of the courts stand and ensure his release.

Amnesty International
http://act.amnestyusa.org/ea-action/action?ea.client.id=1839&ea.campaign.id=35593&ea.tracking.id=Country_USA~MessagingCategory_PrisonersandPeopleatRisk&ac=W1502EAIAR2&ea.url.id=359128&forwarded=true

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Rasmea Odeh sentenced to 18 months, but is coming home!

On Thursday, March 12, 2015 10:18 AM, Prisoner News wrote:

Over
the objections of a prosecution team that called for 5-7 years in
federal prison, a harsh sentence with terrorism enhancements, Judge
Gershwin Drain sentenced Rasmea Odeh, Chicago’s 67-year-old Palestinian
community leader, to 18 months for Unlawful Procurement of
Naturalization, of which she was convicted last November.Almost
200 of Rasmea’s supporters filled two courtrooms in the Detroit federal
courthouse, and left disappointed but not defeated. “This is a blow,
of course, but we have to remember that the government wanted the judge
to lock Rasmea up for half a decade or more,” said Muhammad Sankari of
the national Rasmea Defense Committee. “Judge Drain had to weigh the
outpouring of support that Rasmea has inspired from across the country.
We made it impossible for the judge to justify an extended prison term,
and now, we will stand with her in the fight to appeal the conviction
itself, to make sure she doesn’t serve one day of that prison sentence.”The
decision came after her attorneys argued that she not be imprisoned at
all. Seventy important leaders of unions and community-based,
faith-based, civil rights, and student organizations, as well as
prominent academics and activists, wrote letters to the judge in the
past few weeks, urging him to issue a sentence with no prison time
beyond the month Rasmea served in a county jail following the November
verdict. They cited her invaluable service as a community leader in
Chicago, as well as concerns for her age, poor health, and chronic
Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD).One
of the many letters of support came from Bishop Thomas J. Gumbleton of
Detroit. He wrote, “I am asking for compassion in her sentencing.
Rasmea has much to offer her community…keeping her out of prison would
allow her to continue as a contributing and productive person, doing the
work that is so critical to hundreds of refugee women.”For
their part, prosecutors called for Judge Drain to issue a sentence far
beyond standard sentencing guidelines. While prosecutors had been barred
from branding her a terrorist in front of the jury last year, today
they were bound by no such court orders, asking that a terrorism
enhancement be added to prolong her sentence.Frank
Chapman of the Chicago Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression
said, “The government showed their true colors today, making it clear
this case was never about immigration, but rather, the political
persecution of a Palestinian hero. What they didn’t bargain for is that
Rasmea would defend herself, and that thousands would rally around her.”During
the trial last year, Rasmea was prevented from presenting evidence
about the events that led to her conviction by an Israeli military
tribunal 45 years ago. Judge Drain had ruled that the circumstances of
conviction by Israel didn’t matter. “Not the illegal 1967 massacres and
occupation - let alone the military ethnic cleansing of 750,000
Palestinians from the land and their homes when Palestine was
partitioned in 1948 - not the midnight sweeps and kidnapping by the
invading Army after the 1967 war, not the torture, not the kangaroo
court and false confessions, not the prison time,” said her attorneys in
filings to the court."Be strong whatever happens," Rasmea said before speaking to the judge, "I am strong."After
the sentencing, Rasmea was released on bond, as she sets out to appeal
her conviction. Surprising many, the prosecution did not object,
despite having pressed for her bond to be revoked after the guilty
verdict. She credits the work of her supporters across the country for
forcing the government’s hand.Zena Ozeir of the Z Collective
in Detroit said, “I have no doubt Rasmea’s freedom today is owed to the
public outcry against her persecution. The government is still out to
lock her up for years, but that is something they couldn’t win today. We
have been with her at every hearing and trial date, we’ve held protests
across the country, and flooded their phone lines and mail boxes, with
people of conscience demanding an end to this prosecution, and an end to
her unjust treatment in jail this fall. We will not stop until we win
justice for Rasmea!”After today’s
hearing, Rasmea returns to Chicago, where she will continue her
important community activism and work with her attorneys on an appeal of
the verdict. If Odeh loses her case on appeal, she will have to serve
the full sentence, and then lose her citizenship and be subject to
immediate removal from the United States.

It
has come to our attention while observing the nuclear negotiations
between Iran and the United States government that a group of 47 U.S.
Senators are attempting, against the will of the majority of the
American people, to sabotage any agreement due to their hope of creating
additional conflict between our country and the people of Iran.

We
would also like to bring to your attention that many people in the
United States are aware that the United States government is in
violation of a treaty approved by the Senate and signed into law. The
treaty imposes an affirmative obligation on the United States and all
other countries possessing nuclear weapons to act to diminish and
eventually eliminate all of their existing nuclear weapons as a
condition for relieving non-nuclear countries of the need to acquire
such terrifying weapons. The official name of this treaty is the Treaty
on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons or NPT.We also wanted to
bring to your attention that under the U.S. Constitution, (Article 6,
Clause 2), any treaty approved by the Senate and signed into law “shall
be the supreme law of the land” in the United States.

Article
VI of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty requires the United States as
a nuclear power to: “pursue negotiations in good faith on effective
measures relating to cessation of the nuclear arms race at an early date
and to nuclear disarmament, and on a Treaty on general and complete
disarmament under strict and effective international control". (our
emphasis)

We wanted to make sure that you were aware that the
U.S. Constitution, recognizing the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) as the
supreme law of the land in the United States, requires government
officials to carry out two specific tasks:

First, to eliminate
the U.S. nuclear arsenal under its Treaty pledge of “general and
complete disarmament under strict and effective international control;”

And second, to “pursue negotiations in good faith” with other nations for the achievement of nuclear disarmament.

As things stand, the United States is in violation of this “supreme law of the land.”

The
United States is not ridding itself of nuclear weapons. It possesses
thousands of operational nuclear weapons that it is not destroying. In
fact, it is in the process of improving their capability, deploying them
on updated fighter aircraft, and other land-attack missiles, aircraft
carriers and submarine platforms at the cost of hundreds of billions of
dollars in new government funding.The United States also provides
more than $4 billion in military and economic aid to the state of Israel
although Israel refuses to sign the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty,
or allow outside inspectors, and does not deny that it possesses a
considerable arsenal of nuclear weapons. We are not aware of any call by
U.S. officials insisting that Israel sign the Nuclear Non-Proliferation
Treaty or begin liquidating its own nuclear arsenal.

We,
the people of the United States, are also aware that Iran as a signatory
to the same Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) has the absolute legal
right, as do all signatory countries, to develop a nuclear capability
for civilian energy purposes.

Article IV of the Treaty states:
“Nothing in this Treaty shall be interpreted as affecting the
inalienable right of all the Parties to the Treaty to develop research,
production and use of nuclear energy for peaceful purposes.”

As
a side note, we are also aware that when your country was ruled by a
monarch installed in power in 1953 as a consequence of a CIA led-coup
against the then constitutional government in Iran, the policy of the
U.S. government was to encourage the development of an Iranian nuclear
program.We hope that this letter enriches your understanding that
the spirit and content of the Open Letter by 47 Republican Senators does
not conform with the views and desires of a broad section of public
opinion inside the United States.

Their real aim in scuttling
and sabotaging the current negotiations between the United States and
Iran, perhaps unprecedented in the form they have chosen, is to create
more conflict including the danger of military action against Iran.

Be assured that the last thing the American people want is war with or against Iran.-- Add your name to these initial signers:

PHSS
and many other co-sponsors and endorsers are conducting actions
statewide in CA, nationwide, and internationally. These actions
coincides with 2013 proposals for action from Pelican Bay State Prison
Hunger Strikers, which calls for “…designating a certain date each month
as Prisoner Rights Day. … [when] supporters would gather … throughout
California to expose CDCR’s actions and rally to support efforts to
secure our rights.”

We choose the 23rd of each month for the 23 or more hours every day that people are kept alone in 7 by 11 foot concrete cells.

Questions or want to be added as co-sponsor or endorser? phssreachingout@gmail.com http://prisonerhungerstrikesolidarity.wordpress.com@CAHungerStrikeFind us on FacebookPrisoner Hunger Strike Solidarity

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Save the Date - UNAC National Conference, May 8 - 10, 2015

UNAC
is the major national antiwar coalition in the U.S. today. The
existence of a United National Antiwar Coalition is vital and we need
your financial support to continue our work and to expand.

With
U.S. wars today accelerating and expanding globally in various forms –
from drone attacks on Yemen and Pakistan, never-ending wars in Iraq and
Afghanistan, support to neo-fascists in Ukraine, and proliferating
Africom forces to threats of war for regime change in Syria – we have an
obligation to do whatever is possible to educate the public and to take
action to stop the carnage.

The wars abroad are
connected to global warming with most wars fought over energy resources
with the U.S. war machine as the largest polluter.

At
home, we see hugely growing income inequality, a militarized and racist
police force, mass incarceration of Blacks and Latinos, and a massive
police state apparatus that includes global surveillance and laws to
quell dissent.

In spite of the trillions spent by the
U.S. corporate war government and its controlled media propaganda
machine to keep us in check, the people are fighting back. We’ve been
inspired and strengthened by the hundreds of thousands of new activists
taking to the streets of this country to stop police brutality, to build
Occupy encampments, to fight for decent wages, to demand full rights
for immigrants, to win marriage equality, to end global warming, to
demonstrate solidarity with the besieged people of Gaza, and to protest
unending U.S. wars.

UNAC has played an active, often
leadership role, in all of the antiwar and social justice movements of
our time. While most activists are focused on their particular issues,
the most vital role we can play is to connect the issues to their
source. All of the injustices and crimes we protest, stem from the
imperialist insatiable drive for expanding profit and control – and the
U.S. is the largest imperialist power militarily and economically. When
there should be plenty for all, only the obscenely wealthy benefit
while the rest of the 99% struggle just to survive.

Some of our recent major accomplishments:
· Initiated protest against NATO and 15,000 marched in Chicago in 2012.
·
Called for immediate actions against threats of war and coups directed
at Libya, Iran, No. Korea, Africa, Latin America, Ukraine, and
maintaining the U.S. presence in Iraq and Afghanistan.
· Organized a national tour for Afghan leader Malalai Joya.
· Sent representatives to international NATO protests and conferences.
·
Serve on the Board of the National Coalition to Protect Civil Freedoms
to act against Islamophobia , racist attacks on Muslims, and attacks on
our civil liberties.
· Participated in national efforts to organize anti-drone actions.
·
Campaigned to defend victims of government repression who speak out and
expose Washington’s crimes, including Rasmea Odeh, Mumia abu Jamal,
Lynne Stewart, Chelsea Manning, and the Midwest activists targeted by
the FBI.
· Produced national educational conference calls
featuring experts on topics such as U.S. intervention in Africa, the
destruction of Libya, the developing wars in Syria, and others.
·
Built an antiwar contingent in the massive New York City Climate Change
march and built Climate Change action in other cities around the
country.
· Helped organize protests against Israel’s attack on Gaza
·
Helped organize protests against the murder of Blacks by white police
and the militarization of the police forces in the U.S.

UNAC
has a history of bringing hundreds of activists together at large
national conferences to learn about the issues of the day, to discuss
the way forward and to vote on an Action Program for the coming period.

The
UNAC conference next May will bring activists from all the movements in
motion to cross-fertilize these struggles. We are particularly
dedicated to bringing young activists together to support and learn from
each other. For this, we need your help to offer subsidies to leaders
from Ferguson, from the border wars in the southwest, from the Native
Americans who are fighting against the pipelines ruining their lands,
from the Students for Justice in Palestine, and many others.

Please give generously so that we can continue our work to bring harmony and justice to the peoples of this earth.

You
can send a check to UNAC at PO Box 123, Delmar, NY 12054 or click the
button below to contribute on-line with your credit or debit card.

https://www.unacpeace.org/

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On Behalf of Wadiya Jamal and Mumia Abu-Jamal,A Contribution Request

The message following is a forward from:
Rachel Wolkenstein
Sister, Advocate and Friend of the Extended Family

Samiya
“Goldii” Abdullah, a daughter of Wadiya Jamal and Mumia Abu-Jamal died
on December 17, 2014 after years of battle with breast cancer. Samiya
would have been 37 this January 9 and is survived by two young
daughters, Aiyanah and Aaiyah, affectionately known as Dolly and Puddy,
ages eleven and four.

Samiya was a remarkable woman. She was
accomplished as a musician, an activist and rapper on social justice,
particularly in the struggle for Mumia’s freedom. She devoured books and
education. During her long, often debilitating illness, Samiya finished
her Masters Degree in School and Mental Health Counseling from the
University of Pennsylvania with honors. She was dedicated to her young
daughters and wanted them to grow up loving each other as much as she
did her brothers and sisters. And she wanted her daughters to see Mumia
(called “Pop Pop” by them) walk out of prison and home with their
grandmother, Wadiya.

Samiya's active fight for Mumia's freedom,
began at the young age of four. Mumia wrote about this in “The Visit”
printed in Live from Death Row in 1994. This was recreated in the movie
"Mumia: Long Distance Revolutionary."

"My father is still
considered to be a dangerous individual … his mind is what they fear,
there is over- whelming evidence that would exonerate him of his
conviction.
"He is an innocent man and the commonwealth has always
known this, but being too Black, too smart, and too strong … The
government will silence anyone that possesses the power to open the
minds of the people."
—Goldii

Samiya’s strength, character and spirit were nurtured by Wadiya and Mumia and are being passed on to her daughters.

On
behalf of Wadiya Jamal and Mumia Abu-Jamal, this is a request for funds
to assist Wadiya for care of her granddaughters, Dolly and Puddy.

Donate Now
to fight the “gag” law!
go to:
https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/protect-freedom-of-speech-keep-mumia-on-the-air

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Support Prison Radio

$35 is the yearly membership.

$50 will get you a beautiful tote bag (you can special order a yoga mat bag, just call us).

$100 will get the DVD "Mumia: Long Distance Revolutionary"

$300 will bring one essay to the airwaves.

$1000 (or $88.83 per month) will make you a member of our Prison Radio Freedom Circle. Take a moment and Support Prison Radio

Luchando por la justicia y la libertad,

Noelle Hanrahan, Director, Prison Radio

PRISON RADIO

P.O. Box 411074 San Francisco, CA 94141

www.prisonradio.org
info@prisonradio.org 415-706-5222

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Campaign to Free Lorenzo Johnson

Lorenzo Speaks Concerning Prosecution's Brief:
JANUARY
1, 2015—The prosecutor has run away from (almost) every issue raised in
my PCRA by begging the Court to dismiss everything as “untimely”. When
they don’t do this, they suggest that me and my lawyers were
“defamatory” towards either my former prosecutor Christopher Abruzzo or
Detective Kevin Duffin, in our claims they withheld, misused or hid
evidence of my Innocence, in order to secure an unjust conviction in
this case. If I charged, a year ago, that about a dozen AGs (attorneys
general) were involved in circulating porno via their office computers,
people would’ve laughed at me, and seen me as crazy.

But,
guess what? During 2014, we learned that this was the truth. How can it
be defamatory to speak the truth? Notice the OAG (Office of Attorney
General), never said the obvious: That AG Abruzzo didn’t inform the
Defense about the relationship between his Motive Witness and his head
detective (Victoria Doubs and Det. Duffin); that Det. Duffin doesn’t
deny Doubs was his god-sister, and that she lived in his family home, or
that he assisted her whenever she got into trouble.

Why
not? Because it is true. How can you defame someone who defames
himself? Mr. Christopher Abruzzo, Esq., when a member of the higher
ranks of the OAG, sent and/or received copious amounts of porno to other
attorneys general and beyond. What does this say about his sense of
judgment? He thought enough about his behavior to resign from his post
in the Governor’s Cabinet. If he thought that his behavior was okay,
he’d still be sitting in the Governor’s cabinet, right? The OAG cannot
honestly oppose anything we’ve argued, but they try by seeking to get
the Court to do their dirty work, how? By denying an Evidentiary Hearing
to prove every point we’ve claimed.

The prosecution is
trying desperately to avoid dealing with the substance of my claims in
Com. v. Lorenzo Johnson. So, they slander my Legal Team and blame them
for defaming the good AG’s and Cops involved with this case. They try to
do what is undeniable, to deny that they hid evidence from the Defense
for years. They blamed me for daring to protest the hidden evidence of
their malfeasance and other acts to sabotage the defense. They claim
that they had an “Open File” policy with my trial counsel. But “Open
File” is more than letting an attorney read something in their office.
If it’s a search for the truth it must include what is turned over to
the attorney, for how do we really know what was shown to her?

They
say it is inconceivable that an attorney would read a file, beginning
on page nine (9), and not ask for the preceding eight (8) pages. Yet, it
is conceivable if trial counsel was ineffective for not demanding the
record of the first eight pages. Pages that identify the State’s only
witness as a “SUSPECT” in the murder for which her client was charged!
How could such an attorney fail to recognize the relevance of such an
issue, barring their sheer Ineffectiveness and frankly, Incompetence.

By
seeking to avoid an evidentiary hearing, the prosecution seeks to avoid
evidence of their wrongdoing being made plain, for all to see. If they
believe I’m wrong, why not prove it? They can’t. So they shout I filed
my appeal untimely, as if there can ever justly be a rule that precludes
an innocent from proving his innocence! Not to mention the fact that
the prosecution has failed to even mention the positive finger prints
that ay my trial they said none existed. Don’t try to hide it with a
lame argument about time. When isn’t there a time for truth? The
prosecution should be ashamed of itself for taking this road. It is
unworthy of an office that claims to seek justice.

After
the trial verdict The Patriot-News (March 18, 1997) reported, “Deputy
Attorney General Christopher Abruzzo admitted there were some serious
concerns about the strength of the evidence against Johnson and praised
the jury for doing a thorough job.” I guess he forgot to mention all of
the evidence he left out to show Innocence.

Now, more than ever, Lorenzo Johnson needs your support.
Publicize his case; bring it to your friends, clubs, religious
and social organizations.

On
December 15, 2014 the Rev. Edward Pinkney of Benton Harbor, Michigan
was thrown into prison for 2.5 to 10 years. This 66-year-old leading
African American activist was tried and convicted in front of an
all-white jury and racist white judge and prosecutor for supposedly
altering 5 dates on a recall petition against the mayor of Benton
Harbor.

The prosecutor, with the judge’s approval, repeatedly
told the jury “you don’t need evidence to convict Mr. Pinkney.” And
ABSOLUTELY NO EVIDENCE WAS EVER PRESENTED THAT TIED REV. PINKNEY TO THE
‘ALTERED’ PETITIONS. Rev. Pinkney was immediately led away in handcuffs
and thrown into Jackson Prison.

This is an outrageous charge. It is an outrageous conviction. It is an even more outrageous sentence! It must be appealed.

With your help supporters need to raise $20,000 for Rev. Pinkney’s appeal.

Checks
can be made out to BANCO (Black Autonomy Network Community
Organization). This is the organization founded by Rev. Pinkney. Mail
them to: Mrs. Dorothy Pinkney, 1940 Union Street, Benton Harbor, MI
49022.

Donations can be accepted on-line at bhbanco.org – press the donate button.

For information on the decade long campaign to destroy Rev. Pinkney go to bhbanco.org and workers.org(search “Pinkney”).

We urge your support to the efforts to Free Rev. Pinkney!Ramsey Clark – Former U.S. attorney general,Cynthia McKinney – Former member of U.S. Congress,Lynne Stewart – Former political prisoner and human rights attorneyRalph Poynter – New Abolitionist Movement,Abayomi Azikiwe – Editor, Pan-African News Wire<Larry Holmes – Peoples Power Assembly,David Sole – Michigan Emergency Committee Against War & InjusticeSara Flounders – International Action Center

MESSAGE FROM REV. PINKNEY

I
am now in Marquette prison over 15 hours from wife and family, sitting
in prison for a crime that was never committed. Judge Schrock and Mike
Sepic both admitted there was no evidence against me but now I sit in
prison facing 30 months. Schrock actually stated that he wanted to make
an example out of me. (to scare Benton Harbor residents even more...)
ONLY IN AMERICA. I now have an army to help fight Berrien County. When I
arrived at Jackson state prison on Dec. 15, I met several hundred
people from Detroit, Flint, Kalamazoo, and Grand Rapids. Some people
recognized me. There was an outstanding amount of support given by the
prison inmates. When I was transported to Marquette Prison it took 2
days. The prisoners knew who I was. One of the guards looked me up on
the internet and said, "who would believe Berrien County is this
racist."

New Court Date on 4 Motions for Rev. Pinkney

TUES, FEB. 24 1pm Berrien County Court

Background to Campaign to free Rev. Pinkney

Michigan
political prisoner the Rev. Edward Pinkney is a victim of racist
injustice. He was sentenced to 30 months to 10 years for supposedly
changing the dates on 5 signatures on a petition to recall Benton Harbor
Mayor James Hightower.

No material or circumstantial evidence
was presented at the trial that would implicate Pinkney in the
purported5 felonies. Many believe that Pinkney, a Berrien County
activist and leader of the Black Autonomy Network Community Organization
(BANCO), is being punished by local authorities for opposing the
corporate plans of Whirlpool Corp, headquartered in Benton Harbor,
Michigan.

In 2012, Pinkney and BANCO led an “Occupy the PGA
[Professional Golfers’ Association of America]” demonstration against a
world-renowned golf tournament held at the newly created Jack Nicklaus
Signature Golf Course on the shoreline of Lake Michigan. The course was
carved out of Jean Klock Park, which had been donated to the city of
Benton Harbor decades ago.

Berrien County officials were
determined to defeat the recall campaign against Mayor Hightower, who
opposed a program that would have taxed local corporations in order to
create jobs and improve conditions in Benton Harbor, a majority
African-American municipality. Like other Michigan cities, it has been
devastated by widespread poverty and unemployment.

The Benton
Harbor corporate power structure has used similar fraudulent charges to
stop past efforts to recall or vote out of office the racist white
officials, from mayor, judges, prosecutors in a majority Black city. Rev
Pinkney who always quotes scripture, as many Christian ministers do,
was even convicted for quoting scripture in a newspaper column. This
outrageous conviction was overturned on appeal. We must do this again!

To sign the petition in support of the Rev. Edward Pinkney, log on to: tinyurl.com/ps4lwyn.

President Obama has delegated review of Chelsea Manning’s clemency appeal to individuals within the Department of Defense. Please write them to express your support for heroic
WikiLeaks’ whistle-blower former US Army intelligence analyst PFC
Chelsea Manning’s release from military prison.
It is important that each of these authorities realize the wide
support that Chelsea (formerly Bradley) Manning enjoys worldwide. They
need to be reminded that millions understand that Manning is a political
prisoner, imprisoned for following her conscience. While it is highly
unlikely that any of these individuals would independently move to
release Manning, a reduction in Manning’s outrageous 35-year prison
sentence is a possibility at this stage.Take action TODAY – Write letters supporting Chelsea’s clemency petition to the following DoD authorities:Secretary of the Army John McHugh

101 Army Pentagon
Washington, DC 20310-0101

The Judge Advocate General
2200 Army Pentagon
Washington, DC 20310-2200

The letter should focus on your support for Chelsea Manning, and
especially why you believe justice will be served if Chelsea Manning’s
sentence is reduced. The letter should NOT be anti-military as this will be unlikely to help

A suggested message: “Chelsea Manning has been
punished enough for violating military regulations in the course of
being true to her conscience. I urge you to use your authorityto reduce
Pvt. Manning’s sentence to time served.” Beyond that general message,
feel free to personalize the details as to why you believe Chelsea
deserves clemency.

Consider composing your letter on personalized letterhead -you can create this yourself (here are templates and some tips for doing that).

A comment on this post will NOT be seen by DoD authorities–please send your letters to the addresses above

This clemency petition is separate from Chelsea Manning’s upcoming
appeal before the US Army Court of Criminal Appeals next year, where
Manning’s new attorney Nancy Hollander will have an opportunity to
highlight the prosecution’s—and the trial judge’s—misconduct during last
year’s trial at Ft. Meade, Maryland.

Help us continue to cover 100% of Chelsea’s legal fees at this critical stage!

2) Homeowners Try to Assess Risks From Chemical in Floors
"But while federal rules exist for workers, no federal rules protect
consumers from formaldehyde or most other airborne chemicals in their
homes. And while research exists on formaldehyde’s health effects,
experts have difficulty correlating levels of exposure with cancer risk
since so many factors can affect the development of the disease."

ALBANY,
N.Y. — New York's state comptroller says the average bonus paid to
securities industry employees in New York City grew 2 percent last year
to nearly $173,000.

Thomas DiNapoli says according to his
office's analysis, that's the largest average Wall Street bonus since
the 2008 financial crisis, though the industry was slightly less
profitable last year.

According to the report Wednesday, the
securities industry has been profitable for six consecutive years. It
has added 2,300 jobs in the past year, amounting to 167,800 workers in
New York City. That's still 11 percent less than before the crisis.

Pretax
profits for broker/dealer operations of some 200 New York Stock
Exchange members — the traditional measure of profitability for the
securities industry — totaled $16 billion last year, down $700 million
from 2013.

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2) Homeowners Try to Assess Risks From Chemical in Floors
"But while federal rules exist for workers, no federal rules protect
consumers from formaldehyde or most other airborne chemicals in their
homes. And while research exists on formaldehyde’s health effects,
experts have difficulty correlating levels of exposure with cancer risk
since so many factors can affect the development of the disease."

Installing a new wood floor is usually about aesthetics: brown or black? Glossy or matte?

Now, some Americans and businesses are grappling with another feature: formaldehyde.

Uneasy
consumers have flooded state and federal safety agencies with inquiries
about Lumber Liquidators, the discount flooring retailer accused in a
“60 Minutes” episode of selling laminate wood with high levels of
formaldehyde, a known carcinogen. Should they rip it out? Leave it in?
And what are the dangers to adults, children or even pets?

Attorney General Eric T. Schneiderman
of New York has now opened an inquiry into whether the company violated
safety standards. Safety officials in California are also likely to
investigate.

But federal regulators, armed with murky rules or
none at all, have scrambled to respond, leaving consumers largely
responsible for assessing the risk. Formaldehyde exposure can cause
immediate health problems like respiratory and sinus effects, but the
effects of long-term exposure remain unclear.

That has left many Lumber Liquidators customers concerned about what they should do.

Sol
Hesney, 66, and his wife, Lynne, said they were mystified when their
two dogs became sick shortly after they moved into their apartment in
Fort Lee, N.J., five years ago.

“The vet was stumped. We were stumped,” said Mr. Hesney, who ultimately had both dogs euthanized.

After
the news of Lumber Liquidators’ high-formaldehyde flooring broke on
March 1, Mr. Hesney said he and his wife decided that they would replace
their floors — they had installed the company’s Chinese-made laminate
floors before moving in.

“We looked at each other and said,
‘Maybe that’s what explains this. It’s just too coincidental,’ ” he
said. Since they moved in, he said, he had three serious sinus colds
requiring antibiotics within a year’s time, something that had never
happened to him before, and his wife had bronchitis.

But regulators, at least for now, are advocating a more tempered approach.

“We
are not encouraging people to rip out their flooring right now,” said
Lynn Baker, an air pollution specialist with the California Air
Resources Board, which enforces the state formaldehyde rules that Lumber
Liquidators is accused of breaking.

Commercial customers could
also be affected, although Lumber Liquidators estimates that commercial
sales make up less than 10 percent of the market for laminate flooring, a
cheaper alternative to hardwood. Homeowners account for the bulk of its
sales.

Laminate flooring itself is commonly used in some types of commercial spaces, experts say.

Lumber
Liquidators disputes the “60 Minutes” report and says its flooring is
safe. The company also said it was considering offering air testing
services to reassure concerned consumers.

Installers, too, find themselves on the front lines after the report.

“The
installers literally don’t want to install it,” said David Hill,
president of Texas Best Flooring in Dallas. Mr. Hill, who does not work
with Lumber Liquidators products, said he had received hundreds of
emails and at least 15 calls a day from worried consumers.

“It’s
confusion. Everybody’s confused, and everybody wants it out of their
house,” Mr. Hill said. A spokesman for the Occupational Safety and
Health Administration said the agency was paying close attention to the
Lumber Liquidators issue, though as of Tuesday it had received no formal
complaints.

But while federal rules exist for workers, no
federal rules protect consumers from formaldehyde or most other airborne
chemicals in their homes. And while research exists on formaldehyde’s
health effects, experts have difficulty correlating levels of exposure
with cancer risk since so many factors can affect the development of the
disease.

“Any exposure to a carcinogen can increase your risk of
cancer,” said Marilyn Howarth, a toxicologist at the University of
Pennsylvania’s Perelman School of Medicine.

Mr. Baker, with the
California agency, said consumers should ask two questions: How long has
the flooring been installed, and have they been feeling sick?

“If
the flooring has been installed more than a couple of years ago, most
of it has probably already off-gassed,” he said, meaning that the
chemical would probably have been released. “If it was just installed
last week, that’s a different story — you definitely want to ventilate
the home.”

The floorboard controversy bears a resemblance to the
cases of Chinese-made drywall that released sulfur gases into thousands
of homes built after the 2005 hurricane season, which resulted in metal
corrosion and health complaints. But while the drywall gases were
expected to be released for decades, formaldehyde emissions in flooring
may not last as long.

“You’ll get a fairly large amount that
off-gasses early on, and then it starts to become less over a period
ranging from months to a couple of years depending on the amounts
contained in the product,” Mr. Baker said.

Most new floors emit
small levels of formaldehyde. But it also seeps out of adhesives used to
bind furniture and other household items, affecting the quality of the
air residents breathe.

To combat its harmful effects, governments
around the world have limited the use of formaldehyde in household
products, particularly those made of wood. In Europe, chemical emissions
from composite wood products are tightly regulated, and Japanese
regulators put the onus on home builders to limit formaldehyde levels
over all within houses they construct.

The United States,
however, trails when it comes to such regulations. California enacted
rules to cap emissions from composite wood products sold in the state.
As far back as 2009, the Environmental Protection Agency said it was
considering adopting California’s limits nationwide, and it issued a
proposed rule in 2013.

But after many delays at the request of
the wood products industry, the E.P.A. has yet to complete its rule. On
Tuesday, the E.P.A. said it had no plan to investigate Lumber
Liquidators, citing the lack of a finished rule. The agency says it is
trying to give consumers “actionable guidance” when it comes to
formaldehyde from composite woods, according to Bob Axelrad, a policy
adviser in the office of air and radiation.

That includes proper ventilation, when possible, and using reliable air testing methods.

David
Krause, an environmental consultant at the consulting firm Geosyntec
and the former state toxicologist of Florida, said ventilation helped
but was not always a solution: Humidity, for example, can intensify the
problem.

Testing indoor air quality is also not a simple
proposition — mainly because federal standards are geared toward
workplaces, not homes. There are no definitive testing levels, and
people react in different ways to the chemical.

“We really don’t have anything that is enforceable,” Dr. Krause said.

Still, based on current knowledge of the Lumber Liquidators’ product, he added: “This is not a ‘Your hair’s on fire’ emergency.”

The Consumer Product Safety Commission
may take a lead role in investigating Lumber Liquidators. The
commission can push for a recall if it can prove direct harm to human
health.

But that would involve a long regulatory inquiry. Several consumers have begun pursuing a different path: suing the company.

FERGUSON,
Mo. — Two police officers were shot here early Thursday morning as
gunfire rang out in front of the police station, throwing into panic
what had been a spirited — and at times tense — but largely peaceful
night of protests.

Demonstrators and police officers alike hit the ground when the gunshots echoed through the crisp air. Many people ran for cover.
The police, clad in riot gear, dragged their wounded fellow officers to
safety. Others crouched behind cars and walls, drawing their handguns
or rifles as they rapidly swiveled their heads every which way to survey
their surroundings.

One officer, from the St. Louis County
Police Department, was shot in the shoulder, and the other, from the
suburban Webster Groves department, was shot in the face. Both were in
serious condition, but their injuries were not life threatening, said
Sgt. Brian Schellman, a spokesman for the St. Louis County police.The
shots, which witnesses said they believed originated from the top of a
hill about 220 yards directly across from the station, came just hours
after the Ferguson police chief, Thomas Jackson, announced that he would resign,
a move greeted with praise from protesters. Chief Jackson had been at
the center of criticism that he ran a racially biased department ever
since one of his white officers fatally shot Michael Brown, an unarmed
black teenager seven months ago.

But Thursday’s shooting
threatened to ratchet up tensions, as well as unravel efforts to change
the way the police here do business and to heal the anger and
frustration that Mr. Brown’s killing had unleashed.

In addition to Chief Jackson’s resignation, two other high-ranking Ferguson officials, the city manager and the municipal judge,
left their jobs after a scathing Justice Department report last week
that accused the city of racially biased and unconstitutional practices
in its law enforcement. City officials had hoped that the changes would
help residents see that they were prepared to start anew.

Instead,
Chief Jon Belmar of the St. Louis County Police Department said that
Thursday’s shooting only realized the worst fears he has had since the
unrest over Mr. Brown’s killing — that it would lead to serious
violence.

He said he believed the gunman targeted the officers
who were lined up shoulder to shoulder in front of the Ferguson police
station to keep protesters back.

“I’ve said all along that we cannot sustain this forever without problems,” Chief Belmar told reporters during a news conference in front of Barnes-Jewish Hospital in St. Louis, where the wounded officers were being treated.

“I
don’t know who did the shooting, to be honest with you,” he added.
Chief Belmar said that based on the bullets’ trajectory and where the
officers had been standing, he assumed that “these shots were directed
exactly at my police officers.” He said he did not know what kind of gun
had been used.

The Webster Groves officer is 32 years old and a
seven-year veteran of the force, while the St. Louis County officer is
41 and has 14 years experience, the county police said.

Emotions
quickly ran high after the shooting. One Ferguson officer, standing
among the protesters as things calmed down, said, “This is what they
wanted to happen.”

When a protester told him that no one wanted
this to happen, the officer was adamant, saying that that was his
opinion and that the protester could differ if he wanted.

Protesters
on the scene were quick to point out that the gunfire did not come from
among them, rather from a distance behind them.

Earlier in the
night, the protests took on a familiar pattern that had not really been
seen here since after a grand jury announced in November that it would not indict the white officer, Darren Wilson, for the fatal shooting of Mr. Brown.

It was as much a celebration of Chief Jackson’s resignation as it was a call for more action.

“Not
just Jackson, we want Knowles, Ferguson has got to go!” they yelled in
reference to James Knowles III, the mayor of Ferguson.

Protesters
engaged in a cat-and-mouse game of sorts with the police. Dozens of
them flooded into the street in front of the Police Department, blocking
cars as they tried to pass. Things occasionally became tense between
the protesters and motorists, some of whom refused to back away when
demonstrators lined up in front of their vehicles. On several occasions,
drivers inched forward, tapping the knees of protesters who dared them
to hit them.

Each time, one side would eventually give in: Either
the driver would back away, or the protesters would let them through.
But on other occasions, police officers wearing helmets and clutching
transparent shields and batons would race into the street to clear away
the demonstrators. The police made a handful of arrests.

Some of
the tensest moments came when the protesters fought among themselves.
Some people urged others to block cars, while others urged their fellow
demonstrators to get out of the street and direct their anger at the
officers in front of the police station.

There were tussles
between protesters who did not recognize one another, with the fault
line appearing to be those who had been demonstrating for many months
versus those who were new to the movement. Some took offense to the
supposedly new protesters trying to tell them what to do. At one point,
it devolved into fisticuffs in the street, as the police stood by
watching.

But by midnight, the situation calmed down, and the
number of protesters dwindled to around 100, if not fewer. They stood on
the east side of South Florissant Road, while the police held their
line on the west side, in front of the station.

Then, without any warning or seeming escalation, the shots rang out.

“I
heard the bullets go past my head,” said Bradley J. Rayford, a
freelance photographer, who said he was standing near the officers when
the shots were fired. After the first one, Mr. Rayford said, he looked
up at a hill across from the police station and saw muzzle fire from
that direction. He said he heard about four shots, after which he moved
to the ground.

After the shots were fired on Thursday, the
remaining protesters scattered, and the St. Louis County Police
Department’s homicide unit was sent to investigate.

Dozens of
officers from around the region also arrived to secure the area. A group
of officers in tactical gear carefully walked up the hill across from
the police station where Mr. Rayford and other witnesses said the shots
had come from.

By 2 a.m., a handful of people remained in the lot
across the department, which was encircled in yellow police tape.
Investigators tried to interview people in the group. But in a sign of
the chasm that remained between law enforcement and this protest
movement, many of them were reluctant to talk.

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4) Focus in Brooklyn Subway Shooting Is on Whether Deadly Force Was Justified

For
nearly everyone on the packed Brooklyn-bound No. 4 train, the Tuesday
evening commute began like any other. Bodies crammed together. Tempers
contained beneath the fatigue of a long day.

In one car, an
argument flared as the train left Manhattan: Two men, co-workers
returning from a job site, bristled when an older man, William J.
Groomes, stepped between them to get on, officials said.

It was
the sort of scene that occasionally erupts underground and usually
fizzles. In this case, angry words turned to blows. And Mr. Groomes, a
69-year-old retired New York City correction officer, was carrying a
loaded 9-millimeter handgun.

The confrontation spilled into the
subway station under Brooklyn’s Borough Hall. As Mr. Groomes struggled
with one of the men on a station mezzanine, near a revolving exit door, a shot rang out,
striking the man, Gilbert Drogheo, 32, in the chest. He died at
Brooklyn Hospital Center.On Wednesday, the police charged Mr. Drogheo’s
co-worker, Joscelyn Evering of Brooklyn, 28, with assault and menacing.
But the police and prosecutors were still grappling with whether the
killing — the first in the transit system this year — constituted a
crime, or if Mr. Groomes had been justified in his use of deadly force
to counter what he told detectives was an assault.

The Brooklyn
district attorney’s office said on Wednesday that it was still
“investigating the incident to see if a grand jury presentation is
warranted.”

Neither Mr. Drogheo nor Mr. Evering was armed, the
authorities said. Mr. Groomes told detectives that he had warned the men
he intended to arrest them before following them through the station,
his gun at his side, a law enforcement official said.

“There is
an issue to be determined, which is whether Groomes was justified,” said
the official, speaking on the condition of anonymity because no
decision had been made on whether to charge him. “The shooting occurred
after Groomes told them they had assaulted him and he was going to
arrest them.”

The killing called to mind events of another era,
when subway crime was rampant and New York could make a hero out of
someone like Bernard Goetz, a white man who opened fire in 1984 on four black teenagers who he believed were going to rob him on a No. 2 train.

But
while Mr. Goetz’s weapon was illegal, Mr. Groomes had a permit for the
gun he took onto the subway at a time when, Police Commissioner William
J. Bratton has said, riders are safer than ever. Unlike the episode
involving Mr. Goetz, the moment the gunfire erupted on Tuesday was
captured on video.

Detectives spent much of Wednesday
interviewing witnesses and reviewing video, trying to piece together the
events that preceded the altercation and its deadly conclusion. Mr.
Groomes, who was hospitalized after the shooting, had been released by
Wednesday. His lawyer did not immediately respond to a request for
comment.

Norman Seabrook, the president of the union that
represents correction officers, said he had spoken with Mr. Groomes on
Wednesday. “He’s thankful for all the support he’s gotten,” he said.
“He’s done nothing wrong.”

Under New York State law, people have
the right to defend themselves against an aggressor and to use deadly
physical force when confronted with the imminent use of deadly physical
force.

But unlike states with “stand your ground” laws, such as
Florida, New York imposes a duty to retreat before deadly force is used,
said James A. Cohen, a criminal defense lawyer and Fordham University
Law School professor. “That’s the difference with a cop, who doesn’t
have a duty to retreat,” Mr. Cohen said.

Any decision to bring charges, he said, would turn on who had been the aggressor, at first as well as just before the gunfire.

As
for the idea that Mr. Groomes planned to arrest the two men, Mr. Cohen
said: “People, even though armed, don’t go about trying to arrest people
they have altercations with. And for good reason.”

Mr. Groomes
fired after what the police and witnesses described as a prolonged
confrontation that spilled from subway car to platform to mezzanine.

“They’re
standing in the door; it’s crowded, and everyone is headed home,” said a
witness, Eliza Byard, who was in the car with the men.

“They
were in the way,” Ms. Byard said, adding that the younger men seemed “a
little out of it,” as if they might have been drinking.

While
still on the train, the law enforcement official said, the younger men
had insulted Mr. Groomes, who mostly ignored them. “At one point, they
called him a boy,” the law enforcement official said. “He says: ‘Don’t
call me boy. I’m not your boy.’ ” Investigators said that at another
point, one of the men punched Mr. Groomes in the head.

It was not
clear when Mr. Groomes pulled the gun from his pocket, but as he did he
told the men he was going to arrest them and suggested he was a law
enforcement officer. Witnesses described the panic that spread when the
weapon emerged.

A cellphone video,
recorded by a person in the station and first broadcast by WCBS-TV,
showed Mr. Groomes moving through the station. At one point in the
video, Mr. Groomes appeared to be descending back toward the train as a
man who appeared to be Mr. Drogheo moved away from him.

“Don’t shoot!” a man can be heard saying in the video.

Outside
the Borough Hall station on Wednesday afternoon, Mr. Drogheo’s youngest
brother, Eric Maldonado, 16, said that there was no justification for
the killing. “If you watch the video, my brother is running,” he said.
“He didn’t have to die.”

Mr. Drogheo, the father of a 3-year-old
daughter, worked as an electrician at the same company as Mr. Evering,
and the two often rode home from jobs together. This week, they had been
installing paneling in the East 20s in Manhattan, Mr. Evering’s mother,
Patricia Livingston, said.

“They had no guns, no weapons in his bag,” Ms. Livingston said. “They had tools.”

Mr.
Groomes, who lives in Brooklyn, retired from the Correction Department
in 1993 after 18 years. Like many retired law enforcement officers, he
has a permit to carry a concealed handgun.

A friend called Mr.
Groomes “a wonderful guy” and a regular neighbor. “If anybody would try
to mess with his character, I would defend him on that,” the friend,
Sikkim Assing, said.

Ms. Assing, who is also a retired correction officer, said she understood why Mr. Groomes would want to have a gun permit.

“A lot of people choose to carry a gun because we work with the garbage of New York,” she said. “We got to protect ourselves.”

Reporting was contributed by Emma G. Fitzsimmons, Nate Schweber and John Surico, and research by Susan C. Beachy.

NEW
DELHI — The roof of a cement factory collapsed Thursday afternoon in
the southwestern Bangladeshi city of Mongla, killing at least six people
and leaving scores more in the wreckage, a government safety official
said.

Around 40 people were rescued in the first hours after the
roof collapsed, but as night fell, as many as 70 remained trapped in the
collapsed structure, said Mahboob ul-Allam, senior assistant secretary
in Bangladesh’s
disaster management department. Part of the factory, which is run by
the army and located about 200 miles from Dhaka, the capital, was under
construction, he said.

The cause of the collapse is being investigated.

Two years ago, a similar collapse
focused global attention on unsafe conditions in Bangladesh’s garment
industry, which handles orders for many of the world’s top brands and
retailers. More than 1,000 people were killed in that collapse, which a
government report attributed to substandard construction materials and
blatant disregard for building codes.

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6) Rats and Rot: NYC Report Rips Family Homeless Shelters
"Ultimately, the city spent $637,000 for the guards who were ordered
after the DOI inspection, plus over $750,000 to fix the stairs."

NEW
YORK — One family of six was living in a homeless-shelter apartment
where a dead rat festered on the floor for two days. Another family had
no living-room furniture and had been without electricity for days.

At
a different homeless family shelter, a puddle of urine soiled the floor
of the only working elevator. And at yet another, one stairway was so
treacherously rusted that inspectors ordered guards to block access to
it until it was repaired.

All those buildings were part of a
system that costs the city Department of Homeless Services about $360
million a year, with the agency sometimes paying well above neighborhood
market rates for apartments, according to a city Department of
Investigation report released Thursday. It found decrepit and dangerous
conditions and lacking enforcement were rife in the city-paid, largely
privately-run shelters that house nearly 12,000 homeless families with
children.

"At its worst, DHS is turning a blind eye to violations
that threaten the lives of shelter residents," the report said, calling
for repairs, stiffer inspections and new mechanisms to compel fixes.

The
homeless services agency said it had already axed some unacceptable
apartments from the system, stepped up inspections and asked for money
to hire 19 new inspection staffers, among other steps.

While
that's progress, "much work still needs to be done," Department of
Investigation Commissioner Mark G. Peters said in a statement.

New
York City is legally obligated to provide shelter to all homeless
people and has long grappled with how to house them. The problem has
grown more acute as the numbers of people seeking shelter rose from an
average of about 39,000 a night in the start of 2010 to over 60,000 this
past November, according to the most recent data the nonprofit
Coalition for the Homeless has gathered from city agencies.

Conditions
in some family homeless shelters were bleakly spotlighted in December
2013, when The New York Times profiled an 11-year-old girl who lived
amid mice, rotting walls and communal bathrooms in a Brooklyn shelter
that no longer houses children. Mayor Bill de Blasio took office the
next month and asked for an investigation.

Investigators
inspected 25 of the over 140 family shelters last spring and summer.
They range from converted hospitals and schools with on-site social
services to single-room occupancy hotels and "cluster sites:" apartments
within buildings that also house private tenants.

The "cluster
sites" proved particularly deplorable, the report said. Inspectors
reported roaches crawling on the walls, holes in the corners and
unlocked front doors with inadequate security in lobbies of buildings
with histories of shootings and other crimes. Garbage was piled in
halls, beds were broken and there were rats, including the reeking, dead
one that had lingered for two days, the report said.

The city
pays an average of $2,450 a month for cluster site apartments, while the
average rent in some of their neighborhoods is $1,200 a month and
lower, the report said.

But even some better-equipped shelters
had fire code violations and other problems, including the rusted-out
stairwell, the report said. It was one of two in a 140-family building.

The
homeless services agency had known the stairway was deteriorating since
2012 and tried to get money to fix it. Ultimately, the city spent
$637,000 for the guards who were ordered after the DOI inspection, plus
over $750,000 to fix the stairs. They reopened in September.

FERGUSON,
Mo. — This region awoke Friday to an uneasy calm on Friday as the
police continued searching for the person responsible for shooting two officers a day earlier during a protest outside the police station here.

Demonstrators
returned to the police station on Thursday night for a peaceful but
boisterous rally, as they sought to deny any link to the violence and
shift attention from the shooting to their calls for change in
Ferguson’s police and court system.

Sgt. Brian Schellman, a
spokesman for the St. Louis County Police, said Friday morning that
detectives were continuing to look into leads, but that no one was in
custody. He described it as an “active investigation.”

Investigators
on Thursday scoured nearby streets for evidence, and some people were
brought in for questioning. They were later released.Protesters were
small in number, about 100, and at times subdued in tone. They marched
and chanted for a few short hours, heading home as rain began to fall.
And they had a simple, symbolic goal: to keep the demonstrations alive
the day after the two officers were shot.

Many questioned whether
protesters would return to the street outside Police Headquarters —
doing so would once again expose officers securing the building to
danger — but the demonstration on Thursday night seemed to form as a
kind of defiant answer.

“What the coward who shot at the police
officers last night did was to try to take us off message,” said Cat
Daniels, an activist known as Mama Cat who handed crackers and cookies
to protesters. “We refuse to be taken off message.”

In many ways,
the demonstrations on Thursday night seemed to unfold as if the
shooting never happened. Protesters used the same confrontational speech
they had in the past. Some wore Guy Fawkes masks or bandannas covering
their faces. Others denounced the “racist police” and blared rap songs
with antipolice lyrics.

Though several Ferguson officials have resigned since the release of a scathing Justice Department report,
activists demanded that other officials, including the mayor, also step
down. Anger over the killing of Michael Brown, the unarmed black
teenager who was shot by a white Ferguson officer in August and whose
death ignited unrest, remained as fierce as ever.

“How many kids did you guys kill today?” one protester shouted at police officers who walked by him.

As
Ms. Daniels put it: “I personally feel bad for the officers and what
they had to go through. But they went home. Mike Brown laid on that
ground for four and a half hours and no one cared.”

There were no
arrests during the demonstration. But activists asserted on social
media that two protesters had been pulled over in traffic stops nearby
and arrested.

The shooting occurred shortly after midnight on
Thursday as officers guarded the police station while a demonstration
was winding down. Officials called the shooting an “ambush” and said
that the officers had been targeted. One officer was shot in the face
and the other in the shoulder. Both were treated at a nearby hospital
and released.

Down the street from the police station, a group of
clergy members and protesters gathered for a nighttime prayer vigil,
with several pastors condemning the shooting of the officers while
maintaining that peaceful protesters were not to blame.

“We come
to curse all of those who would stand in the midst of peaceful protest
and cast off shots of violence,” said the Rev. Starsky Wilson, a
chairman of the Ferguson Commission, which was appointed by Gov. Jay
Nixon to study the public’s relationship with law enforcement and other
socio-economic problems.

Law enforcement officials made several
small but significant changes in their handling of the protests and
guarding of the police station, taking a more cautious and less visible
approach.

Last year, after the announcement that a grand jury
declined to indict Darren Wilson, the white officer who killed Mr.
Brown, police officers formed a shoulder-to-shoulder line across the
police station’s parking lot facing protesters. Known as a skirmish line
in police parlance, the line created a human shield between the
protesters and the police station. The two officers who were shot were
standing in such a protective line.

But during the protest on
Thursday night, officers mostly stood behind four parked police sport
utility vehicles. The human shield was replaced for the most part by a
kind of vehicular shield. At one point, when the demonstrators crowded
the street blocking traffic, seven officers stood in front of the
vehicles. Compared with last year’s demonstrations, when a line would
stretch across the length of the parking lot and remain there so long
that officers would rotate in and out, the skirmish line this time was
short and brief.

One of the police commanders in charge of
overseeing security outside the building said he wanted to “reduce some
of that visibility” of his officers, calling the concrete barriers that
blocked the entrance of the parking lot “a position of cover.”

“There
is probably more of a sense of unease, a little bit more nervousness,
based on what happened last night,” the commander, Lt. Jerry Lohr with
the St. Louis County Police Department, said as he stood outside the
police station. “Officers are worried. I think the spouses, the
families’ of these officers, are extremely worried. Personally, I ran
home today to change and get ready to be up here, and my wife wanted to
take a picture with my son. So she asked my 14-year-old son and I to get
a picture taken together. My wife never asks for a picture. It’s her
way of expressing that emotion, that concern.”

Lieutenant Lohr
had won praise from many protesters last year for de-escalating tensions
between law enforcement and the demonstrators. He said a few protesters
he knew had come up to him on Thursday to denounce the shooting.
Throughout the night, he walked among the crowd with about 10 officers,
asking protesters who were standing in the street to move onto the
sidewalk to allow traffic to flow. He was yelled at, greeted politely,
hugged, questioned, ignored.

“I don’t think it’s fair to
stereotype and say this was an act of the protesters,” he said of the
shooting. “The majority of the people that are out here are here to have
their voices heard. The majority of people out here aren’t here to
physically engage the police.”

LONDON — In a move that could unlock years of stalemate, Swedish prosecutors on Friday offered to travel to Britain to question the WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange over allegations of sexual assaults in 2010.

The Swedish officials had previously refused to conduct interviews in London, where Mr. Assange has taken refuge in the Ecuadorean Embassy since June 2012.

But
with some of the crimes under investigation set to reach their statute
of limitations in August, the officials said that they had changed their
minds, and that they had also asked for permission to take a swab of
DNA from Mr. Assange.

“My view has always been that to perform an
interview with him at the Ecuadorean Embassy in London would lower the
quality of the interview, and that he would need to be present in Sweden in any case should there be a trial in the future,” Marianne Ny, the director of public prosecutions in Sweden, said on Friday in a statement.

“Now
that time is of the essence, I have viewed it therefore necessary to
accept such deficiencies in the investigation and likewise take the risk
that the interview does not move the case forward,” she added.

One
of Mr. Assange’s defense lawyers, Per Samuelson, welcomed the
initiative and suggested that it would most likely be accepted. He said
he had spoken to Mr. Assange early on Friday.

“This is what we
have been asking for, for years, so finally the prosecutor is speaking
the same language,” Mr. Samuelson said. “We are a little irritated that
it has taken her so long to do.”

“We received the formal request
from the Swedish prosecutor by email,” he added. “In that email, there
are some preconditions, one of which is that both the Ecuadorean and the
United Kingdom authorities approve the request. For us, she could come
tomorrow, but since she demands that the two countries approve, that
could take some time.”

Mr. Samuelson added, however, that he
thought that both Britain and Ecuador wanted to resolve the situation
and would not obstruct an interview taking place in London.

He
also said that the Swedish prosecutor already had access to a sample of
Mr. Assange’s DNA. “We don’t know why she is asking for it once more,”
he said, adding that he had not discussed that aspect of the request
with Mr. Assange.

Mr. Samuelson said that Mr. Assange welcomed the change of position from the Swedish prosecutor.

“I
am convinced that once the prosecutor hears him, she will understand
that he is innocent and will drop the investigation,” he said.

In
the statement, Ms. Ny said that if Mr. Assange agreed to the interview
in London, it would be carried out by the supporting prosecutor to the
case, Chief Prosecutor Ingrid Isgren, along with a police officer.

Karin
Rosander, the director of communications for the Swedish prosecutor,
said that it was unclear how soon any interview could take place. After
getting the agreement of Mr. Assange, the Swedish authorities would
still need to make a formal request to Britain before going ahead, she
said.

No
charges have been brought formally, but that step is usually taken
later in a criminal investigation in Sweden than in many other
countries. In 2012, Mr. Assange lost an appeal
in Britain against extradition to Sweden, prompting his request for
refuge in the Ecuadorean Embassy in London, where, under diplomatic
protocol, Britain does not have jurisdiction.

Mr. Assange denies
the allegations, but he has refused to go to Sweden to face them because
he says he could then, ultimately, be extradited to the United States.
There, he might face trial over the publication on WikiLeaks of huge
quantities of delicate information that caused acute embarrassment for
the United States and for other governments and revealed confidential
details about diplomatic relations.

A solution to the impasse
would probably be welcomed by Britain, where a police chief said this
year that the cost of guarding the embassy to ensure that Mr. Assange
did not leave was draining resources.

The Metropolitan Police in
London have provided a 24-hour guard at a cost of about $15 million
since the operation began, and Commissioner Bernard Hogan-Howe told LBC Radio
this week that officials were considering “how we can do that
differently in the future, because it’s sucking our resources in.”
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*

CAPISTRANO BEACH, Calif. — By the time Wendy Leeds reached him, the sea lion pup had little hope of surviving.

Like
more than 1,450 other sea lions that have washed up on California
beaches this year, in what animal experts call a growing crisis for the
animal, this 8-month-old pup was starving, stranded and hundreds of
miles from a mother who still needed to nurse him and teach him to hunt
and feed. Ribs jutted from his velveteen coat.

The pup had lain
on the beach for hours, becoming the target of an aggressive dog before
managing to wriggle onto the deck of a million-dollar oceanfront home,
where the owner shielded him with an umbrella and called animal control.
In came Ms. Leeds, an animal-care expert at the Pacific Marine Mammal Center, which like other California rescue centers is being inundated with calls about lost, emaciated sea lions.

“It’s
getting crazy,” she said.Experts suspect that unusually warm waters are
driving fish and other food away from the coastal islands where sea
lions breed and wean their young. As the mothers spend time away from
the islands hunting for food, hundreds of starving pups are swimming
away from home and flopping ashore from San Diego to San Francisco.

Many
of the pups are leaving the Channel Islands, an eight-island chain off
the Southern California coast, in a desperate search for food. But they
are too young to travel far, dive deep or truly hunt on their own,
scientists said.

This year, animal rescuers are reporting five
times more sea lion rescues than normal — 1,100 last month alone. The
pups are turning up under fishing piers and in backyards, along inlets
and on rocky cliffs. One was found curled up in a flower pot.

Last week, SeaWorld San Diego
said it would shut its live sea lion and otter show for two weeks so it
could spare six of its animal specialists for the rescue-and-recovery
effort.

“There are so many calls, we just can’t respond to them
all,” Justin Viezbicke, who oversees stranding issues in California for
the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, said on a
conference call with reporters. “The reality is, we just can’t get to
these animals.”

As the injured animals proliferate, their
encounters with humans are growing. Some people offer misguided help
such as dousing the pups with water or trying to drag them back into the
ocean. Others take selfies with the stranded animals, pet them or let
their children pretend to ride them, rescuers said.

As Ms. Leeds
approached the quaking sea lion on Capistrano Beach, she frowned at a
pile of tuna near his muzzle. “Has someone been trying to feed him?” she
asked.

Many are sick with pneumonia, their throaty barks muted
to rasping coughs. Parasites have swarmed their digestive systems. Some
are so tired that they cannot scamper away when rescuers approach them
with nets and towels and heft them into large pet carriers.

“They come ashore because if they didn’t, they would drown,” said Shawn Johnson, the director of veterinary science at Marine Mammal Center in Sausalito. “They’re just bones and skin. They’re really on the brink of death.”

This
year is the third in five years that scientists have seen such large
numbers of strandings. Researchers say they worry about the long-term
consequences of climate change and rising ocean temperatures on a sea
lion population that has evolved over thousands of years to breed almost
exclusively on the Channel Islands, relying on circulating flows of
Pacific upwellings to bring anchovies, sardines and other prey.

“The
environment is changing too rapidly,” said Sharon Melin, a wildlife
biologist with the National Marine Fisheries Service who found that pups
on the Channel Islands were 44 percent underweight. “Their life history
is so much slower that it’s not keeping up.”

Scientists said it
was too soon to predict how these strandings and deaths could affect
California’s sea lion populations, which stand at what scientists say is
a healthy 300,000. As their mothers leave them to take longer, less
productive foraging trips, the pups are simply not growing normally.

“We
do expect the population to take a drop,” Dr. Melin said. “Probably not
something catastrophic, but probably a really good hit. It is going to
impact the overall population eventually if we continue to have these
events back to back.”

For now, rescue and rehabilitation groups
like Pacific Marine Mammal Center, in Laguna Beach, have the feel of
big-city emergency rooms. Volunteers and staff members pull up with
crates of freshly beached sea lions to be weighed and examined. They
shave numbers into the animals’ brown coats, warm the coldest ones in
saltwater baths, and try to coax them back to health with smoothies of
herring, Karo syrup, Trader Joe’s brand salmon oil and other nutrients.

Many
have rebounded, gaining weight and graduating from indoor holding pens
and tube feedings to eating small fish and romping in outdoor pools. The
gaunt new arrivals lie forlornly inside, lethargic and scrawny. The
recovering ones loll outside like sunbathers on a crowded roof deck,
rolling around in hose spray and occasionally flapping around the small
pools in their pens. After four or five weeks, many should be ready to
be released back into the ocean.

But the death rates are
sobering, and staff members say they have to make quick and sometimes
painful decisions to euthanize animals unlikely to survive. Of the 1,450
sea lions scooped up from the shores, about 720 are now being treated,
Dr. Viezbicke of NOAA said.

Michele Hunter, the center’s director of animal care, said, “It’s very difficult to see so much death.”

On
Capistrano Beach, Ms. Leeds hauled the quaking sea lion into a kennel,
accepted a $20 donation from the homeowner who had called in the report
and headed down the highway to a fishing pier where a lifeguard had
spotted another pup in the sand.

This one was small and cool to
her touch with ragged, unsteady breathing, so she piled both animals
into the same kennel so they could keep each other warm. They seemed to
bond quickly: When Ms. Leeds reached toward one, the other snapped at
her hand. Within the hour, veterinary workers would decide that both
pups were too starved and sick and had to be put down. For the moment,
the two curled up together like a pair of brown socks for the ride back
to the rescue center.

MADISON,
Wis. — A 19-year-old biracial man who was unarmed when killed by a
white Madison police officer was shot in his head, right arm and torso,
according to preliminary autopsy reports released Friday.

The
report from the Dane County Medical Examiner did not say how many times
Tony Robinson was shot on March 6, but said he died from "firearm
related trauma." The results of toxicology tests aren't expected for
several more weeks.

Robinson was fatally shot by police officer
Matt Kenny after Kenny was summoned to a call that the young man was
jumping in and out of traffic and had assaulted someone. Authorities
said the officer heard a disturbance and forced his way into an
apartment where Robinson had gone, and fired after Robinson assaulted
him.

The Wisconsin Department of Justice is investigating the
shooting; state law requires an outside agency to look into any fatal
police shootings. Attorney General Brad Schimel has said he hopes to
have the bulk of that investigation done and submitted to the local
district attorney in two weeks.

There have been numerous peaceful
protests of 1,000 people or more since the shooting. Robinson's funeral
was scheduled for Saturday.

A memorial for Robinson at the scene
of the shooting still drew a few people Friday morning. Visitors have
left flowers and mementos outside the apartment and scribbled notes on
its walls.